Read More

He's since found work elsewhere but returned to the site to support remaining workers.

He said: "I only left an hour early and just as I went into the doctor's I got a call from Harris Pye's HR saying 'You won't be required back'. Within a couple of days other men were taken on. That's the only reason they got rid of me.

"Because we're on zero hours contracts they can do what they like."

GMB union member Neil Dawson said workers had been 'slung off that job like a used condom' and warned the demonstrations could be escalated if conditions weren't improved.

Protesters blocking the entrance to King George's Dock

"We might end up doing 24 hours a day, or three demonstrations a week," he said.

"We just want to say to employers that we expect minimum standards in this city. We've nothing against the foreign workers. It's the employers who are at fault.

"The name of City of Culture and Hull is being dragged through the mud as far as we're concerned."

Current workers employed at the site would only speak to the Mail anonymously, for fear of losing their jobs.

One man, who works as a plater, said: "When we first started they wanted us to work 57 hours a week. Now they want us to do 7/12s (12 hour days, seven days a week). It's just not on.

"There's guys in there who've been here since Christmas and they've only had the Bank Holidays off. The way we're being treated is Victorian."

Another said: "They're exploiting the foreign workers and they're exploiting the English workers.

"If the foreign lads speak up or don't do as they're told they're on the first plane home.

"If we take any time off, or go to the doctor's or whatever, we're off the site. That's what it's like all the time now."